Does David Cameron believe that the UK should base its future relationship with Europe on that which Switzerland currently has with the EU? We should hope that the answer is a resounding no.

Think of the Swiss economy and the thing that will come to mind for most people will be banking and finance. Cameron's recent defence of the City might imply that he thinks of the UK economy in similar terms. But if he does, then his logic is wrong for four reasons.

First, Switzerland has built its banking business on the basis of being a tax haven. It is impossible to know for sure how much money is illicitly located in Switzerland, but a past chairman of the Swiss Private Bankers' Association has admitted it may be as high as 30%. This is unsurprising. Switzerland deliberately created banking secrecy in 1934 to assist those evading tax in their home jurisdictions. Whether or not this was acceptable in 1934 does not matter: it is wholly unacceptable now.

To make the UK into even more of a tax haven than it already is would only increase our isolation from Europe, as it would effectively be a declaration of economic warfare on the already tax-starved economies of the EU. The fightback would be serious, strenuous and quite possibly effective, which makes it all the more interesting that Jonathan Faull, the UK's most senior official in Brussels, has suggested the UK's new position is to be the Channel Islands of Europe, knowingly referring to the fact that they have for too long based their economies on such activity.

Second, Switzerland's other finance activities – of which reinsurance and head-office location services are the major part – have also been based on very low corporate taxes and a logic that few jobs should be located in a place where there is little space to accommodate people. In contrast, the UK badly needs high corporate tax revenues from businesses capable of generating large numbers of jobs, as employees alone are currently unable to fund the social services they require – hence the need for a serious tax contribution from their employers.

The needs of the UK and Switzerland are also very different are in a third regard. The Swiss industrial economy, as that of a landlocked state, is based on small trade volume with very high added value. In contrast, the UK has been and remains a bulk-trading nation, adding relatively little added value to goods in transit. If, by alienating our strongest trading partners, we threaten that reality then favouring the City, as Cameron has done, puts at risk our already weakened industrial base, potentially making him the biggest threat to UK manufacturing since Margaret Thatcher.

But all these concerns should pale into insignificance when one further fact is appreciated. Switzerland's hot money and the best of their real businesses are currently heading en masse for Singapore. The cash is pouring out for two reasons. First, the US has broken Swiss secrecy, and second, the EU and its member states are lining up to do the same. As for real business activity, Singapore and the east Asia are simply cheaper. In that case, the reality is that the Swiss business model may itself already be bust, and only a fool would copy it.

• Richard Murphy is an adviser to the Tax Justice Network and director of Tax Research LLP

Following last week's EU summit in Brussels, many have suggested that the UK is now cut off from Europe, left on its own as Europe unites together, against it. Rather like Switzerland – much like Switzerland, in fact. But how isolated is Switzerland really?

The Swiss have stayed outside the EU since its creation, preferring to use the European Free Trade Agreement and over 160 bilateral agreements with the EU instead. The reasons for Swiss independence from the EU are complex, although similar to the motives behind British hostility, namely historical independence, a fear of diminished sovereignty and a view that they know best when it comes to running their own affairs.

Like Britain, Switzerland has a financial sector which makes up close to 10% of its GDP. In the worst year of the economic downturn, 2008, the Swiss continued to grow at a staggering 3.1%, while regulating their banks firmly. In recent weeks, Swiss government bonds fell so low that creditors had to pay the Swiss government to lend to them. These are hardly figures of a nation struggling with isolation. To demonstrate further, the Swiss are consistently listed in the top three richest countries in the world, and exports twice as much per head to EU countries as the UK does.

Yet as good as these figures are, many claim that success in this "isolation" wouldn't be possible for the UK: we're told we are "too big". But hang on a minute, aren't these the same people who said that the UK is too small to survive without a seat at the EU table? The UK has the largest financial sector in the world: more euros are traded in the City of London every day than every other European city combined, and UK government gilts yesterday fell to their lowest level since 1889 – and that's after the veto that has "isolated" us. The markets appear to be giving their view.

• Anthony Pickles is a parliamentary researcher and Conservative activist